Africa's state-owned oil firms are taking a bigger role in the rush to tap the continent's energy resources and threatening to upstage the Western majors who have dominated exploration and drilling for decades. Governments from Luanda to Lagos are pushing for greater control and laying down increasingly stringent rules for the international firms.
A new refinery in South Africa is likely to be the only one to go ahead in the short-term from a slew of projects proposed in sub-Saharan Africa, analysts say. Dozens of developments have been announced in recent years in countries including Angola, Nigeria and Zimbabwe but most will stay on the drawing board.